A launch party & unexpected bar crawl for some great Southern brews. 

As an upfront disclaimer I’ve been a fan of SweetWater beers since my time in the South during law school. While just about anything delicious and alcoholic can help one cope with law school, SweetWater always managed to stick out from the pack along with some local Nashville breweries & Abita. So naturally, even without the pressures of law school sending me to the drink, I was pretty excited to hear that SweetWater was coming to the Chicago market & jumped at the opportunity to go to SweetWater’s launch party at Lakeshore Beverage‘s office.

First, a quick shout out to the host, Lakeshore Beverage. I was told that they had bars at their office, but definitely did not think they were full scale bars and of excellent caliber. The front bar is a place I would gladly spend my Friday nights if it was open to the public. So long story short, if you have the chance to go to an event hosted at Lakeshore Beverage, do it. They host quite a swanky shindig.

Now, onto the main event: beer.

SweetWater’s slogan is “Don’t float the mainstream,” so I felt a little bad returning to their most well known beer, the 420 Extra Pale Ale. However, it was pretty easy to float back into some nostalgia drinking this beer.

Since this was far from a first tasting for me, I decided to check out SweetWater’s website to gain some more in depth information on this beer and make some comparisons. SweetWater describes the 420 as a “tasty West Coast Style Pale Ale,” which left me to try and figure out what exactly “West Coast Style Pale Ale” means.

With my Oxford Encyclopedia of Beer currently MIA, I turned to the interwebs and found these features recurring across definitions of this type of pale ale: deliberately unbalanced (with some people suggesting it be hop-bombed), no caramel malt, citric flavor & aroma, crisp, and bitter. Alternatively, the simplest definition I found was that it simply must contain hops from the West Coast.

I’m not sure what standards SweetWater used when defining the 420 as a West Coast Pale Ale, but the beer definitely tasted well balanced and not very bitter, so the definition I dug up and the beer I had seem to be at odds. Maybe the Georgia heat tilts the preferences for West Coast Style Pale Ales to a more tame side than the bold and bitter versions I dug up online.

However, the 420 is definitely tasty, so SweetWater and I easily agree on that part and I don’t have to do any research on that point.

Next up in the batting order was a pint of SweetWater Happy Ending, a limited release Imperial Stout (so go pick yours up asap). Often when I’m drinking a craft stout the flavors come across as unbalanced (not necessarily in a bad way). A specific flavor like coffee, chocolate or vanilla often seems to overpower everything else in the stout. This is definitely not the case with the Happy Ending, which made no sacrifices in flavor but managed to elevate all the flavors without accenting any particular ingredient. Looking at the facts on line I was surprised to see chocolate as an ingredient after tasting the beer, and unsurprised to see the roasted barley which I feel really contributed to the flavor.

My final pint at the launch party was a SweetWater Blue. Another beer I’m definitely familiar with, but definitely one that I forgot just how much blueberry flavor is packed into this easy drinking beer. And I don’t mean easy drinking as an insult. This brew is just heavy enough to have a full body and just the right amount of taste to enjoy on a summer day.

My friend Jaypee joined me for the launch party, who summed up his opinion of the event with this short statement:

It was a great event to welcome them to Chicago. All of the Sweetwater reps were great to talk to, and seemed excited and happy to be here and introduce us to their products. Freddy also wanted to “rage”, and that’s always cool with me. I’ll definitely be buying Sweetwater in the future.

As the event drew to a close we ended up talking to Kevin from SweetWater, who works with forecasting demand for these tasty treats. We didn’t get into too much details of his work, but enjoyed a conversation about breweries across America and sharing rare brews with friends and strangers alike.

As we were wrapping up at Lakeshore, Freddy, one of the owners of SweetWater came by to invite us on a Beer Crawl. In Jaypee’s words, it looked like Freddy was ready to rage. Unfortunately Jaypee couldn’t make it out for the Beer Crawl, but I knew I couldn’t pass up an invitation to go crawling with a brewery owner, so I invited Z-bot to join and headed out to the first bar, G&O.

First off, G&O definitely looks like a bar I would come back to if I lived in the area or wasn’t distracted by 68 other bars in the city. The main highlights at G&O was tasting the SweetWater Hop Hash, and drinking a bottle of Underberg bitters. I’m not sure if this was just a prank by Freddy, but he passed out a box of bitter bottles and straws. For some reason I went along with the crowd and drank this without asking questions. Can’t say I would do it again, but am still curious about why this was done.

As for the hop hash, it went down fast and wasn’t excessively hoppy, so I have no complaints about this beer and would definitely have it again, even though I have moved away from a lot of hoppy brews over the past two years. I the Hop Hash goes to show that a hoppy beer can still be done right.

Z-bot arrived right as things were wrapping up at G&O, so I called an Uber and we headed to the next stop, Public House. [I know, I took an Uber 😦 ] This past weekend I asked both of my Lyft drivers if they believed in aliens, and both replied yes. I decided to ask the Uber driver and I’m not exactly sure what he said. I honestly felt a little bad because I think he thought we were asking something about illegal aliens.

At Public House the crawl group spread out around the bar, but I managed to spot Kevin from SweetWater and we grabbed some brews with him and chatted with the master brewer, Mark, who formally worked at Goose Island.

While working on a full 420, a SweetWater employee came up and offered to refill Z-bot’s pint if he finished his beer. I don’t think anyone in the group took this offer seriously until we looked at Z-bot a minute later and saw him standing with an empty glass awaiting a new pint of SweetWater IPA.

Now, the SweetWater IPA, that sir, is delicious and I fully expect it to be one of my go to beers this Summer. [I even bought a six pack the next day] I honestly can’t remember if I had the IPA when I was living in Nashville, or if I just forgot about it. Maybe it’s a case of tastes changing, but this was simply one of the tastiest IPA’s I’ver ever had. I definitely recommend you pickup a case of this in the near future.

After Public House we headed to Bub City, a bar which I’ve usually avoided due to long lines, and was quite surprised to see a Southern style bar in the middle of River North once I made my way inside. Bub City has a Bourbon Bracket on their wall, so they instantly became a hit with me.

Highlights of our stop at Bub City was chance to taste the Take Two Pils – which at this point of the night my ability to rate or review a beer was severely diminished – and an offer to do some shots with Freddy. Z-bot’s response to the offer of shots was to state that ” ‘White Bitch’ better not puke on my couch” to which Freddy replied “If he does, I’ll buy you a new one.” (Thanks to a commenter on my Archie’s Iowa Rockwell Tavern post, I am now known as ‘White Bitch’ on this blog)

The shots were house made “fireball” shots. I would not recommend them. I prefer my cinnamon whiskey with antifreeze.

Finally, Z-bot and I ended our night at Pippin‘s.

I spent a good deal of time here trying to barter with Freddy for his hat. Not sure why. Did not succeed.

Also, I lodged a formal complaint with Freddy from my friend Anheuser, an Atlanta native. Apparently Anheuser’s drink of choice is a 420 mixed with a SweetWater Blue, but at his wife’s 10 year high school reunion the brewery refused to serve him this concoction. He resorted to ordering two drinks at once and mixing them to his specifications (knowing Anheuser I’m certain that he has a specific ratio that’s kept top secret). When hearing of this travesty Freddy decided to offer Z-bot and I a drink, which we hastily accepted and settled Anheuser’s debt.

As the night wound to a close Freddy offered to pay for my tab if I was still standing at the end of the night, but we ran into an argument about which bar we should go to next. Z-bot and I made a compromise and left to go get gyros.

If you want to check out some of SweetWater & Lakeshore’s other events going on this week in Chicago, you can find them here.

As for my experience, overall it was a great night, so welcome to Chicago SweetWater, I’m wishing you the best.

Schwein Nacht

Quick recap on how this dinner came about. Kit Graham from Windy City Bloggers reached out to me last week about free tickets to a Beer Dinner, Schwein Nacht, hosted by Brooklyn Brewery at Sheffield’s. I like beer, food, Brooklyn Brewery, Sheffield’s, and free stuff, so I said “yes” without hesitation. If you want to judge me with suspicion for getting free stuff, go ahead, but Brooklyn and Sheffield’s are already two things I’d already recommend and most of what I had at the dinner, including all the food, I have never had before.

So, to sum it up, shout outs to Kit Graham, the Windy City Bloggers Collective, Matt Tanaka at Lakeshore Beverage (provider of the free tickets), and of course everyone from Brooklyn and Sheffield’s for putting this event together. Also, props to Matt for his photography skills and a thank you for letting me use his photos of the event. Matt’s pictures are definitely a step above my camera phone shots, especially since I think smeared meat sweats from the dinner all over my lens.  So, many thanks and shout outs all around.

 

I arrived at Sheffield’s after some travel mishaps and whatnot. At first I was in a slight panic because I found a mostly empty bar. I feared that there was a secret second Sheffield’s location that only cool people know about. I thought I would miss the dinner. Sad face.

Fortunately, I’ve visited Sheffield’s enough to understand that it’s more akin to four bars in one building than just a single bar. I meandered around Sheffield’s with too much hubris to simply ask a server or bartender where to go. My meandering finally ended when I found the dinner group seated around one of the back bars.

Most of the seats were taken, but eventually I came across two open seats with a group of four BP workers. They were a friendly enough group and made great company while I waited for B-Pede to join me for the dinner. Our topics ranged from how hockey jerseys and Tommy Bahama shirts are excellent options for fat guys, to what the best region of America is for meeting new people (I feel people mostly go out in groups in Chicago and that it’s hard to approach a group if you’re out by yourself. The BP group disagreed and basically called the rest of the country a bag of dicks.)

COURSE I

Pork Rind Panzanella paired with Brooklyn Pilsner (Full Malt Pilsner, 5.1%)

 

The beginning of the dinner easily ended our conversations as we became consumed in food and beer. Chef Victor started us off with a salad topped with pork rinds. Also, I should probably mention that every dish tonight had some form of pork in it. Normally after something like this I would give out my address so you can mail me my main points, but I think I’m already maxed out.

You could tell everyone enjoyed the salad because no one listened to anyone’s table talk. I think I heard every person individually exclaim “oooh! an avocado!” at some point during the first course, clearly not hearing every other person point that out before them. I could also tell people enjoyed the salad because there were pork rinds. Except B-Pede, but he also went through a vegetarian stage at one point, so his opinions are dubious on the issue.

Brooklyn Brewery paired the salad with a pilsner. Normally I feel like craft brewers who make a pilsner are just wasting precious yeast and time because there’s not much you can do to improve a pilsner. However, as with all of the beers this evening, Brooklyn really managed to separate themselves from the crowd. The beer came across as smooth as any pilsner, but with a much thicker, heavier taste that made it distinguishable from the typical American pilsner. I would say that I’m definitely going to have this again, but I feel like I’d probably opt for every other beer Brooklyn hooked us up with throughout the night, and that’s not an insult to the pils.

Moving onto all those beers, let’s talk about the second course. A porchetta paired with a Blast double IPA.

 

COURSE II

Porchetta, Basil Gremolatta, paired with Brooklyn Blast (Big IPA, 8.4%)

 

I need to take a moment for my heart to finish clearing an artery just from thinking about this dish.

 

 

Okay, back.

The porchetta had so much fat in it that I feel like it should take up wearing hockey jerseys and Tommy Bahama shirts. As either Victor the Chef, or Andrew the Brooklyn rep pointed out, this really isn’t a dish that you’re going to have every week. He’s right, but it’s definitely a dish I’m going to dream about while consuming the everyday trash I put into my body weekly. (Sorry Taco Bell, it’s true. I know you’re edible, but you’re not food.)

As for the IPA, for a long time I was a fan of IPA’s and anything hoppy. IPA was synonymous with Sierra Nevada for me in college. I can’t think of another IPA I knew about other than maybe a couple in Australia and the rare Dogfish Head I’d stumble across. And those beers were fairly inaccessible for several years. Dogfish Head is a bit expensive and elaborate beer for a college student, and Australian beers…. well they’re in Australia. Australia’s gotta be at least as far as Kansas or one of them square shaped states or something. 

Fortunately, the expanding craft beer scene came to save my palette. Over the past couple years IPA’s have exploded on the national beer scene. Unfortunately, so many IPA’s have worn me out and it seems like the Great American IPA Bubble has left most breweries churning out the hoppiest beer they can make with little attention to flavor. 

Much like the pils, Brooklyn Blast is an IPA that sets itself apart from the bunch. One of the least dry IPA’s I’ve had in a long time, but with a full and heavy flavor profile and all the goodness you expect out of an IPA. This may be a stretch, but I would almost compare Blast to a Guinness. I make this comparison not in any sense of taste or composition, but because this felt like a balanced beer and appropriate in any situation or season, hot or cold, or… hot or cold? I think I need to step up my knowledge of seasons and/or vocabulary…. 

Anyways, if I thought that the Brooklyn Blast made a good hitter in any situation, then it hit a home run when paired with the porchetta. The slight hoppiness and easy dry bite paired up great with the fatty goodness of the pork, while the traditional flavor profile of an IPA paired up perfectly with the spice of the gremolatta.

Spicy, fat, beer. I feel like I’m at a loss of words to make that list better.

Fortunately for myself and everyone at the dinner, Chef Victor and the Brooklyn Brew Crew knew how to add to that list.

 

DIGESTIF

Hand & Seal (Barleywine style ale, 13.3%)

 

For the third ‘course,’ Brooklyn Brewery set us up with their Hand and Seal, a bourbon barrel aged barleywine style ale made by Brooklyn’s brewmaster as a celebration of his 20th anniversary with the brewery.

Normally I’m not a big fan of bourbon barrel beverages (except bourbon, obviously), but this beer is a huge exception. (You may be noticing a trend of how I feel about Brooklyn’s beers.) I would have never guessed that they involved a bourbon barrel in the process for this one. 

Everything about this beer was so well done that I’m glad it was the ‘digestif’ and not served with any other dish; I needed all my focus just to mentally digest how much I liked Hand and Seal. Based on smell alone, B-Pede and I figured the barleywine style ale would come across like a sour. From this experience I’m going to say I don’t have a future as a cicerone, as Hand and Seal definitely had a lot of subtle flavors and none of them reminded B-Pede or I of a sour beer.

 

COURSE III

Smoked pork shank, braised red cabbage, paired with Brooklyn Oktoberfest (Marzen, 5.5%)

 

Eventually Chef Victor returned for the true third course, a pork shank over red cabbage and paired with an Oktoberfest.

I feel like allowing myself to drool over my keyboard for five minutes and seeing if that leads to any words on the page is the best way to describe the flavors in this dish.

The pork shank was so good that I forgot I had a beer. Usually if I forget about my beer it’s alcohol induced, so it’s pretty impressive that Victor made a pork shank intoxicating enough to produce the same result. According to Andrew from Brooklyn Brewery, this is the sign of a good beer pairing – the food and drink feel like they come together as one.

The pork shank had an amazing crust, which did not do good things for my taste buds when paired with the red cabbage. This was not good for my taste buds because now almost everything else is inferior. Thanks for ruining everything for me, Victor. 

As for the beer paired with the pork shank, I’m either ‘on’ or ‘off’ the Oktoberfest bandwagon in any given year. Some years I may only have one all Fall. Other years I may have enough to make me start talking to the Sam Adams character on the 12-pack. This year has been an ‘off year’, but I honestly feel that if someone made me aware of Brooklyn’s Oktoberfest a month ago, then this year would have been an ‘on year’. Unfortunately, according to the Brooklyn Brewery employees, the beer is only available about 60 days a year, which means I better start scouring Chicagoland for the remaining bottles.

 

COURSE IV

Baconated Bourbon Pumpkin Ice Cream paired with Fire & Ice (Smoked Oatmeal Porter, 7.2%)

 

With my taste buds fearing they would never have such delight again, Victor redeemed himself with the final course, a “bourbon pumpkin ice cream with bacon and walnuts.” … He had me at everything he said. Really, the words that make up the title of the dish don’t do it justice as each flavor kept distracting me and one-upping itself with every bite.

Victor told us about how he feared his staff would confuse the pumpkin ice cream for butternut squash soup. Despite his best attempts at labeling, Victor’s staff ended up doing exactly this earlier in the week. Sheffield’s served us proper ice cream, but I don’t feel like I’m going out on a limb when I say that I’m more than willing to drink this in soup form if it means I get another bowl.

Speaking of delicious liquids I want to have again, the Fire & Ice paired perfectly with the ice cream. I almost wanted to pour the beer over the ice cream and stir it into some form of a October Bushwacker. Patent pending on October Bushwacker.

The Smoked Oatmeal Porter matched up perfectly with the ice cream, and better yet I would still drink it as a stand alone beer. As with the other beers this evening, Brooklyn’s beverage really struck me because of it’s overall balance. The porter presented all of the flavors you would expect from this kind of brew, but did not overly accentuate any of the parts or let any flavor dominate. Most importantly, in my opinion, the porter did not overdue the “burnt/rustic” taste I would say I find in most similar porters by other breweries. I’m not opposed to this flavor, but it’s great to see it drawn back and taste the medley of other flavors in a beer like this.

 

 POST-DINNER

 

After the dinner I found Matt, the marketer from Lakeshore Beverage, who co-hosted the event and hooked me up with the tickets. While chatting with Matt about the dinner, B-Pede and I brought up Madame Rose, a sour beer by Goose Island. B-Pede originally mentioned Madame Rose during the dinner when he suspected the Hand & Seal would taste like a sour.

B-Pede said that Madame Rose is the best sour he’s ever had and suggested splitting a bomber after dinner since Sheffield’s is fortunate enough to carry Madame Rose. Sadly, the price of the 2010 Madame Rose has gone up since the last time B-Pede visited, but luckily, as we debated purchasing the bottle, Matt decided to treat us to a bomber. Matt also explained that many people have called Madame Rose “Goose Island’s best beer. Ever,” so that would explain the notch up in price. A deserved notch up.

Ever since Snappy introduced me to sour beers I’ve kept guard at liquor stores and checked if they have the ones I like. I fear that I may start buying out entire shelves at Binny’s if I ever see Madame Rose in stock. I don’t know how I managed to do this, but I actually critiqued Madame Rose, wishing for a bit more pucker to it. I was not in my right state of mind when I said this, so excuse me, and my apologies to the Madame.

 

Matt introduced B-Pede and I to the Brooklyn reps while we enjoyed the bomber. Both Andrew and Ben were great conversationalists and had excellent knowledge about the industry and their company. Andrew is a Cicerone and Ben has taken the test twice. After hearing Ben’s tales about the test I fear that I have no chance of ever becoming a Cicerone. I suppose I should refocus my energies on creating a new profession – Sangria Sommelier. Or maybe Grilled Cheese Sommelier. … Okay, I’ll settle for a grilled cheese.

I tried to hang and act like I’m knowledgeable about beer by pointing out that I own the Oxford Companion to Beer. (Note, I said I own it, not that I’ve read it or understand it. If you follow this blog then you can probably tell I barely know how to read.) Without acting like they one-upped me the Brooklyn staff two-upped me by talking about Brooklyn’s brewmaster, Garrett Oliver. Garrett Oliver is also known as the editor and chief of the Oxford Companion to Beer. As the guy who once put a Twizzler into a bottle of homebrew before bottling it, I think it’s reasonable for me to say that the fine people at Brooklyn Brewery may know a thing or two about beer. One of them literally wrote the book on it.

As our conversation progressed I started talking about beers more within my shallow understanding of beer. (“Beer taste good.” “Beer make happy.”) While explaining that “Beer taste good,” and giving my impressions of the dinner I got to hear a bit about Brooklyn’s brewing philosophy. Andrew and Ben both emphasized that Brooklyn aims to make well balanced beers, and hesitated to use the word conservative. However, they  said that conservative may be an accurate if not precise definition of what they try to do. I feel like I found this true of several of their beers, as the Fire & Ice did not have the burnt, rustic taste I pick up on in many similar beers, the Blast IPA did not overwhelm me with hops or dryness – despite the fact that Brooklyn uses 9 different hops in it – and the Pilsner is something worth remembering.

To wrap this up, at a bar like Sheffield’s it’s somewhat hard to pick a beer you want because they have such a great selection. Personally, I like to rotate my beers and try new things, but all five of these are beers I hope to have again. Additionally, I’d say that one of the best things about these five beers is that each one can appeal to a wide audience of drinkers because they are each so well balanced. I find it highly improbable that anyone who can down a pint would turn down any of these beers.

As for Sheffield’s food, I’ve ate there before but Chef Victor made a menu on a different level this night. I seriously want to hire him just to make porchetta all day so I can walk around chewing the crust like it’s bacon. (I’m conflicted on whether the pork shank or porchetta had a better crust.) I think the total time that all of our pork dishes spent in the smoker totaled about 12-13 hours and took several days to prepare.  (This isn’t my usual, stupid exaggeration, I think that’s the actual total from what they told us). That dedication paid off big time and as someone who just got his first smoker, I’m pretty jealous.

Welp, if you’ve made it to the end of this post, thanks. If I don’t blow myself up with this smoker I hope that I’ll do Twisted Spoke and Sidetrack a good service this weekend with my visits.

Until next time, you know, blah blah blah, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, something or other & best bar in Chicago.